As­traZeneca ter­mi­nates US pen­sion plan — will oth­er phar­mas fol­low?

As­traZeneca’s US sub­sidiary is ax­ing its $1.3 bil­lion-dol­lar pen­sion plan this year, mark­ing an end of an era as an­oth­er group of re­tire­ment funds at ma­jor cor­po­ra­tions is shut­tered while ex­ecs hand off their long­time re­spon­si­bil­i­ties to new man­agers. And more Big Phar­mas are ex­pect­ed to fol­low suit.

As­traZeneca Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals LP is go­ing through the process af­ter a sol­id year of per­for­mance in 2021, which fund man­agers have set the stage for ex­its like this. As Bloomberg Law re­port­ed re­cent­ly, the large funds en­joyed one of their best years in re­cent times in 2021, al­low­ing cor­po­ra­tions to make the switch in 2022. That’s in keep­ing with a years-long trend as com­pa­nies dropped set pen­sions in fa­vor of 401Ks, where staffers bear the risks.

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